Happy Birthday... X for me!

My son Ben was eighteen this week. A cause for great celebration amongst his family and friends. One of the cards had a pint of beer and a ballot box on the front with the caption "Old enough to drink, Old enough to vote" and the message inside... "I vote we get drunk!"

But I'm not about to start banging on about teenage excess (in his case the only excess I'm really worried about is the excess on my car insurance!) there was another card that he was sent on his eighteenth birthday that was more of a revelation.

With a neatly printed address and a second class stamp, my eighteen year-old son received a card from our local MP, Dr Julian Lewis.

Now I know Julian, I've interviewed him many times, but Ben has never met him. I was pretty certain this must be something Dr Lewis was doing for every eighteen year-old. But I wondered, was it just in this election year?

It turns out that it's something he's been doing for at least ten years, and some other MPs do the same.

So my next thought was, I wonder if he claims it on expenses?

And the answer is, no.

Dr Lewis pays for the cards out of his own pocket, a way of introducing himself to my son, and about seventy other teenagers every month. He used to address all the cards himself too, it seems but that became a bit of a chore. They get the names from the electoral roll, and the local Conservative Association pays the postage.

I was feeling a bit churlish about asking, now. And the cards apparently generate quite a bit of extra casework once people have been introduced to their local MP. But in these recession hit times is it really a good use of an MPs time and money?

Well, it's a nicely produced, cheery card. And Julian Lewis has signed it personally. He must judge the benefit.

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